Unregistered deaths in South Australia

• Unregistered deaths in South Australia This project grew out of the Lonely Graves Project when it was discovered that a number of burial had no matching death registration. This project lists such incidences by matching reported deaths in newspapers, Government Gazettes, headstones, Inquest records, Public Trustee Intestate Records, etc and recording those incidents where a death registration cannot be found.
There were rules about reporting a death and gaining permission for a burial. Sometimes distance and remoteness made these rules impractical and expedience took over. Technically no deceased person could be buried without the presentation of a Death Certificate, a Burial Order or a court order.
Many unregistered deaths result from misadventure and/or occur in remote areas. A number of the deceased were foreigners. Technically the local magistrate should have arranged to forward proceedings following the issuing of a Burial Order on to the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, but clearly in a number of cases this never eventuated. You can check the index at this site and then order a lookup.

Pictured: Elizabeth Thyer age 19, daughter of James and Hannah nee Wall died 29 December 1869 at Teetulpa Station near Yunta, a death never registered but reported in the newspaper. (Register newspaper 6 Jan 1870)

This project respects Aboriginal culture and customs and therefore does not knowing include such records. In the nineteenth century the majority of aboriginal deaths went unreported to the Registrar.